Cross Stitch Gold 112 - parasols

I thought the time would never come when one of my stitches actually appeared in a magazine, it`s been sooooo long since anything of mine has been published! Or maybe that`s just how it felt to me... Anyway, here`s the latest one: my cheerful parasols, designed by Durene Jones, which ended up on an oh-so-summery beach bag.

It has been a real pleasure to work on this - deceptively? - easy-looking, smallish design; after all, it`s only 128x123 (on 14ct, 23,5x22,5 cm) and uses a total of 26 colours. However, it definitely needed the deployment of a good, easy-to-follow marking system, both for the similar shades of cream in the background and the backstitch. Oh, and for a little teaser, at the back of issue 112, you can see my sunflowers advertised from the next issue of Gold - yay! This might just mark the beginning of a summery cheer-spreading offensive on the part of Durene and yours truly...? ;)

Over halfway there, trying not to mix up which handle belongs to which parasol ;)

Just remembered in the nick of time that I wanted to take a photo
of the finished cross stitch, before starting the backstitch (ooops!)

And a mere 56 hours later - the finished product :)